The Pamir Highway is only open some months per year, with passes at 4,280 and 4,655 meters above sea level. The highway is so remote and oxygen-deprived that the actual border crossing lacks checkpoints. Between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan stretches a long 22 kilometers of non-maintained road through No Man’s Land. The Secret Road The Pamir Highway was planned in 1891 by Lieutenant Colonel Bronislav Grombchevsky , who convinced a Russian Tsar that a road was the only way to win the "Great Game" against the British in Afghanistan-Pakistan-India. In 1912, engineers were dispatched to upgrade a medieval horse-trail through the Himalayas to a full-blown road. But the Pamirs do not surrender easily. Local legend whispers that the mountains exacted a terrible price: not a single engineer or builder returned dead or alive. It wasn't until 1933 that the Soviets constructed "The Secret Road", a military lifeline intended as an escape route from the USSR's into the Orient.…